East Tokyo United
A struggling club, of which Takeshi Tatsumi used to be the star and has now returned to as a coach. Overview ETU was at the height of its popularity and strength while Tatsumi was a player. The team at the time was built around him and so his departure hit the team hard. Tatsumi also holds the record of being the only ETU player to have been on the Japanese Natiional Team. Although, that was only for a short time.Giant Killing manga; Chapter 25, page 04 Shortly after Tatsumi left, Fuwa became ETU's manager and it was during Fuwa's time as manger of ETU that ETU was relegated to the second division.Giant Killing anime; Episode 6 Fuwa claims that he could not do a good job with ETU because the club management would not support him properly. Fuwa wanted the club management to help him buy high profile players for his team as Fuwa believes that by importing high-level foreign players, he is able to improve the level of his Japanese players as well and thus raise the level of his entire team.Giant Killing anime; Episode 9 He also believes ETU to be a superficial team because the management is not committed.Giant Killing anime; Episode 13 ETU suffered through more bad team managers, with the club management being able to do little to assist the team, and lost all their big name players with the exception of Murakoshi, who stayed with the club to honour his responsibility as the captain. It was Murakoshi that spurred the teams return to Division 1, which took four years from the time of relegation.Giant Killing manga; Chapter 6, page 16 Kuroda was another play who stayed with ETU through its fall to Division 2, having joined the club for his rookie year during the season that saw them relegated.Giant Killing anime; Episode 11 The season prior to Tatsumi joining the club as a manager was marked by a failed attempt by the club to add more striking power to its arsenal by hiring an ex-Argentine national player by the name of Fernando. Fernando was the previous #7 and was a very expensive player. However, the investment an utter bust as Fernando could not get used life in Japan and had low moral. Fernando performed poorly and left the club poorer due to his high salary. The club avoided relegation due largely to the efforts of Natsuki, who always scored in the games ETU could not lose. Natsuki was doing so well that he was a serious contender for the title of the leagues top scorer. However, Natsuki's injury ended his season early. ETU managed to place 15th on the league ladder and thus, barely avoid relegation (teams placed 16th or below are relegated). However, the club started the current season in dire straits, losing the chief sponsor with no new sponsor in sight. According to President Nagata, the club has bet its very existence on Tatsumi and if he fails to turn things around than it may well spell the end of ETU.Giant Killing anime; Episode 1 Tatsumi's Task The concrete milestones Tatsumi wants to achieve have never been made clear. Goto started the season identifying that ETU needed to win to survive. Tatsumi himself has only stated and he wises to make ETU strong again and erase its losing mentality. Despite the losing streak in the beginning of the season and the loss against Albireos Niigata, or perhaps because of the losses, ETU has been getting stronger and the team cohesion improving constantly. Meaning that ETU stands a chance of finishing the season extremely strong. The Japanese football season is quite long and ETU hasn't even played half the league matches. In addition, without full data on the other clubs, it is impossible to gauge ETU's current position in the league table. However, ETU's problem isn't just that it generally languishes near the bottom of the league table. Due to the boring nature of their defensive football, they were not popular with the fans. Nor was ETU known to produce upsets. Under Tatsumi's leadership, ETU has started playing a more interesting brand of football and is capable of "slaying giants". These are equally important to ETU's fortune. Then there is also the prospect of National representation. While national duty can rob a club of valuable players, inclusion in the national team also brings added exposer and potential for sponsorship. Something that is important for a small club like ETU. Blanc and Tatsumi appear to have similar coaching styles and the national roaster for the years hasn't been drawn-up (all players referred to as national players are from the previous seasons roaster). However, that does not mean that any ETU players will be chosen. Blanc is yet to show interest in ETU players. Yuri Nagata, however, believes that there is a strong possibility of ETU players being called-up due to the closeness she observed between Blanc and Tatsumi.Giant Killing manga; Chapter 25, page 03 Current Season Despite posting a draw against the reigning champions, Tokyo Victory, in their pre-season friendly, ETU suffered a five game losing streak once the season opened. This was largely due to their defensive line as initially Kuroda and Sugie were apt to lose their spirits when ETU was behind. They also refused to go along with Tatsumi's ideas and were replaced by Kamei and Kobayashi. However, they were too inexperienced and were continuously outplayed. Kuroda and Sugie eventually realised that the problem was them and returned, if only to stop Dori from suffering any more embarrassment from the defensive line. ETU still posted one more loss but Kuroda and Sugie displayed the kind of spirit that Tatsumi was looking for and as a result, Tatsumi unveiled the first of his special tactics for the game against Nagoya Grand Palace. This began a short winning streak that was followed by a string of draws starting from the game in which Sera sustained an injury. The string of draws exposed a lack of cohesion in the team, with Akasaki taking issue with Ishihama and Kiyokawa's desire to win and motivation for playing. ETU ended the string of draws with a loss against Albireos Niigata but according to Sonoda, ETU played much better in the second half and would probably have posted a different result had Gino been on the pitch. ETU's next game was against the might Osaka Gunners, who were at the time undefeated and on top of the league table in both points and goals scored. ETU was widely expected to lose against them, with any chance to an upset victory being largely dismissed due to the fact that ETU did not have a history of upsets. The Gunners did go 2 goals up in the first half, with their dangerous striker Kubota leaving Sugie in the dust. However, the second half saw Tatsumi's plans come into effect and Osaka's play style was put into disarray. ETU took advantage of this and scored two goals thanks to Akasaki and Sugie, with the latter having an assist from Gino. Tatsumi then owned to Matsubara that he had intended to win the match 2-1 and hadn't planned for the need to score a 3rd goal. However, Tatsumi went on to say that he was relying on Sera to not let ETU stop at a draw - which is where many of ETU's fans were expecting it to stop due to ETU's lack of upset history. Sera did go on to score the 3rd goal to post a win. Taking ETU's season to date to 4 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses, across the league games and Japan cup preliminaries, with the season still being in its early stages. Pre-Season Friendly League Games ETU's total point count for league matches is currently 12 points from ten matches with twenty-four matches to play.Giant Killing Anime; Episode 25 Japan Cup Preliminaries Player Roaster ETU currently has no foreign players. Gino, who is half-Italian, generally does not count as there is no indication that he has played soccer at a professional level outside of Japan. ETU also currently has no representatives at the national level. Since Tatsumi took over, the ETU regulars have been a mix of players and the squad cannot be classified as either "ageing" or "young", as about half the squad is in their early to mid-twenties and the other half late-twenties and above. Dori is their oldest starter at 33 but this is normal for a Goalkeeper as it is a position that peaks later, benefiting from experience. Tsubaki is their youngest starter at 20. Management References Category:Clubs